A nervy India squandered a one-goal advantage as they allowed Canada to stage a fightback with a late strike and earn a 2-2 draw in their final men’s hockey pool game of the Rio Olympics Games today.
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A disjointed India’s Olympic hockey medal hopes went up in smoke as they crashed 1-3 to Belgium in the quarter-final here on Saturday.
India were up 1-0 by Akashdeep Singh’s goal inside first quarter but the Sreejesh’s men conceded thrice in the second half to to hand Belgium their first Olympics semifinal since Antwerp 1920. Oltmans chose to take India’s best player off the field in the final 10 minutes of the game by putting an extra outfield players as India tried to claw their way back in the game.
Yet on Sunday, all these big guns didn’t get a single chance to threaten Vincent Vanasch in goal for Belgium. They went into half time leading 5-0.India had a succession of PCs at the end of the quarter, and Rani’s attempt off the second was blocked away by Argentina.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Argentina and Belgium were breathing rarefied air in Olympic men’s field hockey when they reached the medal rounds on Sunday. India vs Argentina Hockey match was one such high andreline outing where both the teams gave their best but there has to be one victor and that was India.
As they played through the time left on the clock, they received one more penalty corner chance to tie it up, which actually ended up turning into four opportunities. India’s strikers lacked finishing skills against the Canadians. Belgium march into the semi-final of the hockey competition while India head home.
The Indian defence got ample time but failed to cut Cedric Charlier’s cross from left and Dockier was at the right place at the right time to deflect the ball in.
It wasn’t that the Indians played badly in the quarterfinal. We should have scored more goals in the second and third quarters.
With just 2 minutes to go, Belgium nearly scored the opening goal of the match but Indian goalkeeper Sreejesh had other ideas.
In the dying moments, India removed goalkeeper Sreejesh to bring in an extra outfield player and their attack was fruitful, earning them as many as four back-to-back penalty corners.
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Belgium is an experienced side, with the majority of the squad having surpassed the 100 global appearances mark including treble centurions John-John Dohmen and Jerome Truyens as well as double centurions Cedric Charlier, Thomas Briels, Felix Denayer and ace striker Tom Boon. “We need to improve that and we need to see these matches as do or die matches”, he said. Had they beaten Canada they could’ve faced Spain, a waning hockey powerhouse, who they had beaten here in Rio during a practice game. A Manpreet Singh long ball found Akashdeep deep inside the circle in front of Belgium’s goal. If India loses to Canada, it will boil down to goal differences.
